Ok, If That's What You Want
by BlunderbussFishstickz
Summary: Initially a straight-forward tale of friendly sparring in the gravity chamber after Goku has been gone post-Buu for quite some time, resulting in lemony yaoi goodness. Bulma has been gone for a while, and apparently Vegeta was much lonelier than he realized.
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** [Standard disclaimer about only borrowing the characters for my own amusement] A/U if you consider the existence of GT to be canon, otherwise set some undetermined number of years post-Buu saga under the assumption that Buu was the last major bad guy the Z fighters had seen and Goku was off training with Uub for a really long time.

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Vegeta cracked a rare smile, as he back-flipped away, dodging another of Goku's attacks. He kicked off against the wall, rebounding seamlessly into an offensive counter routine. He couldn't remember the last time sparring against his oldest rival had felt this good. The hum of the gravity chamber, smell of sweat, the true challenge of an opponent of practically equivalent strength were all exhilarating. The intoxicating flood of endorphins sent rippling, pleasurable sensations through his body unlike any he had felt in a long time. Training had always been about pushing himself as far as he could handle, fighting had always been about winning. Even sparring had been about proving he was stronger, but Vegeta had to admit to himself that at this moment it was about something else. It was simply fun.

Letting loose a primal growl that held none of the animosity or rage of years-no, decades-ago, Vegeta launched himself wholly into his attack, moving at preternatural Saiyan speed, as the two of them darted around the chamber. Goku was smiling as well, which was obviously nothing new, his typical, huge, goofy grin plastered across his face as it often was whenever he sparred (and occasionally, even when the fate of the world actually was at stake). Ducking and weaving defensively, only the slightest bit faster than Vegeta's flurry of attacks, Goku began to chuckle. 'Leave it to Vegeta,' he thought to himself. 'Always stronger than the last time. And look at him! He's really enjoying himself!' Goku brought his leg up in a block, an effort to change the momentum. He froze when his knee glanced the unmistakable bulge at Vegeta's crotch. If there had been any chance of Goku not noticing, it was quickly betrayed by Vegeta's reaction. Sweat trickled from his temple as his cheeks reddened. They hovered, unmoving, for several moments.

"Huh?" Goku started dumbfounded at the other man. His gaze crept lower, eyes growing wide as he gawked at the obvious outline of Vegeta's erection. His workout shorts were much looser-fitting than the clothing Goku ever known him to wear in the past, however they concealed very little.

Vegeta snarled, struggling to regain his composure. Even with a lack of recent physical contact, he hadn't expected to be affected this way. He floated to the floor, folding his arms across his chest as he turned his back toward Goku.

"What, Kakkarot, you're going to tell me you've never gotten a little excited in battle?"

"Well, yeah," Goku said with a laugh, scratching the back of his head. He drifted over to where Vegeta stood. "Why do you think I keep my uniform so baggy? But I didn't think it ever happened to you. That would have been really hard to hide in that spandex armor you used to wear!"

Vegeta snarled again, mentally cursing, 'that fool, how could I let him do this to me? This is absurd!' Another part of him couldn't help but consider the very different context under which he had uttered similar sentiments in the past. Usually, it was in regard to being beaten, not a sudden desire to beat...something entirely different.

Goku continued, "and it makes sense, I mean, obviously you've been training as hard as ever-"

Vegeta winced as his choice of wording.

"-since we last sparred, but when was the last time you actually fought an opponent? Or had sex? And with Bulma gone, it's not like you're...you know!" Goku winked, daring to throw an arm across Vegeta's shoulder. Vegeta bristled at the gesture, but didn't pull away. He clenched his hands at his sides, unable to identify the flood of unwanted emotions. He tried not to think of the twelve long years since Bulma's death, and how it related to his sex life (or lackthereof). Vegeta jumped back when Goku's other hand began experimentally fiddling with his waistband.

"What do you think you're doing?" Vegeta shouted, trying to supress the sudden thrill he had experienced at Goku's less-than-platonic touch. Shaking his head as if to rid himself of frustration, Vegeta growled when he felt Goku standing directly behind him once more. He didn't move. He wanted to move, wanted to be nowhere near Goku just as badly as he wanted their bodies tangled together, naked on the floor of the gravity room. Unbidden, a thousand graphic images flashed through his mind, only serving to intensify his arousal. His mind appeared to have conceded the battle to his body. A familiar ache, originating in his balls began radiating upward, spreading from his groin to his abdomen. That sensation was the point where, in bed with Bulma, foreplay turned into unbridled passion. It was the same feeling that woke him from half-remembered erotic dreams on occasion, chiefly responsible for morning masturbation.

"Look, I get it. It's kind of confusing. But it's really okay. Hell, Krillin and I-"

"Like I care what you and that little freak used to do when you were children!" Vegeta's eyes darkened as he faced Goku. His cock throbbed. 'Ok, if this is what you want,' he growled to himself. In an instant, he shoved Goku against the wall, hands locked in a tight grip on his hips. "Kakkarot," Vegeta's tone was a husky mix of threatening warning and deep-seated need. Tangible heat began to grow between them as Vegeta pressed into Goku, roughly grinding against his thigh in search of some relief. He could feel Goku instantly stiffen as he thrust his own thigh between Goku's legs.

"I won't tell anyone," Goku breathed, moving in for a kiss. Vegeta turned his head away, grunting. 'As if there was anyone to tell,' he thought angrily.

Goku just shrugged, working to rid Vegeta of his pants while Vegeta did the same for him. Simultaneously breathing sighs of relief, Vegeta couldn't hold back his smirk as glanced down to compare sizes. Before he could gloat, Goku's fingers were encircling him, fist pumping up and down the length of his shaft. Vegeta masked a moan with a grunt as his fingers dug deeper into Goku's hips in an attempt to steady himself before sliding his left hand between them to mimic Goku's motions. He chose a spot on the wall behind Goku, and stared at it, breath growing ragged as their paces quickened.

"Vegeta, that feels really good," Goku didn't try to stifle his own enjoyment. He moaned loudly every time Vegeta's thumb brushed across the head of his cock. Vegeta allowed Goku's other hand to wander, calloused hands contradicted the tender way in which he stroked the small of Vegeta's back, taking care not to touch his tale scar. In contrast, Goku's other hand moved at the same brutal pace Vegeta took with him. To match, his ever-tightening grip on Goku's hip was certainly going to leave bruises. Goku ran his hand across Vegeta's chest, grazing a nipple. Vegeta hissed approvingly as Goku pressed his thumb over the bud.

"If you don't slow down, I'm gonna cum soon," Goku groaned, tweaking Vegeta's nipple harder a second time.

"Isn't that the point?" Vegeta growled, his own release rapidly approaching. Goku's hand was slick with pre-cum. He began thrusting into Goku's hand, self-control almost entirely gone.

"Mmmmm, yeah, it is," Goku moaned, "it's just that," he moaned again, "here, like this," Goku grabbed Vegeta by the waist and pulled him closer. Off-balance, Vegeta's weight crashed into Goku, in their state it nearly toppled them both. Vegeta let go, placing both palms against the wall to brace himself, pinning both Saiyans' erections together. He inhaled sharply, quickly realizing this had been Goku's intention all along. He looked his old rival in the eye, then down. Goku wrapped both hands around their cocks, slightly rocking his hips so that his length rubbed against Vegeta's for added friction.

"I kinda want to suck you off, taste you" Goku explained, finding a rhythm. "Or maybe you inside me, let you fuck my brains out. Shit, that," he was panting now, "would be too much. I know I couldn't take it. I'm so close, Vegeta," Goku moaned.

"Kakkarot, shut uuhhhh-" Vegeta growled, unable to articulate the last syllable as his climax hit. He buried his head in Goku's shoulder for support against the overwhelming wave of ecstasy. Goku followed immediately after, releasing Vegeta as he sank to the floor. Fist still pumping every last bit from his spent cock, Goku kept talking. Vegeta refused to admit-even only to himself-that some of his fantasies sounded incredibly appealing, muttering something about a shower as he dropped a towel in Goku's lap before exiting the gravity chamber.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: Okay, this was supposed to be a one shot, since I never set out to write anything without an ending in sight. Works in progress run the risk of becoming far too unruly, and I dread running into writer's block halfway through. But two things happened here: first off, some people actually read this thing. A few of you awesome folks even posted reviews-asking for more. While I like to think I don't give a rat's ass what people think of me in real life, never mind what faceless folks online think, that made me pretty fucking happy to say the least. Thanks so much! Secondly, I got to thinking on a slow night at work, about some places this could go. And now that I have a vague idea of what more can be done with it, with some inkling of a way to end it when those ideas get exhausted (or, since this thing is practically pure pr0n, when I think I've run out of ways to describe Vegeta having sex without being too repetitive), I'm kind of psyched about adding more.**

_**Warning: This is still Vegeta/Goku-based, although there's a fair amount of Vegeta/Bulma in this chapter. We'll use it as a metaphor for the confused phase that my DBZ OTP is currently going through, because I was pretty hardcore Vegeta/Bulma at first for pretty much the first time I've ever really shipped a het pairing-and a canon one at that! My old slashy ways crept back in, because apparently when it comes to fanfiction, I will always prefer subtext and yaoi at heart. As a result, if anyone is so inclined to skim through the first two paragraphs to get to the man love action, I can understand.**_

**[Standard disclaimer, of course]**

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Vegeta wrapped an arm around Bulma, pulling her on top of him. He lay back on the bed, simply watching her for several minutes, enjoying the view as it were. He arched his hips upward to meet her frantic thrusts, each one of his senses awash in the tangible energy radiating from their bodies. Rewinding to the beginning, to the early days of their relationship and even several years into it, never would he have believed that this was his favorite position. Prince of all Saiyans, domineering and always in full control, couldn't pinpoint exactly when he'd first discovered that nothing afforded him quite the full picture as when he relinquished some of that control to his woman. It allowed him the opportunity to take in the sight of her: blue hair down, sticking slightly to her sweaty shoulders, the way her breasts bounced as she rocked against him. Her heavy-lidded gaze locked on him, her eyes roaming his body with the same lust-filled desire as she admired his scarred musculature just as he admired her smooth, delicate curves. He could only look without touching for so long, though, and soon he found his hands moving over every inch of her torso, Vegeta inhaled deeply, their mingled scents hung thickly in the air. The sounds she made always seemed louder, hungrier, when she rode him like this. Every gasp and moan drove him wild, threatening to push him over the edge. Vegeta sat up, crushing Bulma against his chest as he kissed her, and effectively silencing her. Hardly the most refined kisser when he wasn't deep in the midst of intense sexual pleasure, Vegeta was all tongue and occasionally teeth, lips bruising together as if they were almost in the way. Bulma kissed him back with equal urgency, fingers tangling in his hair. She continued to straddle him, determined not to break her rhythm. Vegeta growled, their mouths still warring amidst the brutal kiss. Bulma pushed back against him, unrelenting. Her boldness had always excited him, stoking his strong sense of competition. It never failed to rekindle Vegeta's need for dominance, and Bulma gasped, eyes going wide for a split second as he forced her onto her back. He stretched out above her, nipping harshly at her collarbone as he withdrew.

"Vegeta," Bulma moaned his name, knowing the effect hearing it had on him. Vegeta gritted his teeth, trying to dismiss the ache it produced in his groin. He pushed up on his arms, angling himself between her legs, and began grinding his erection against her clit. A devious grin worked its way across his face as he watched her writhe beneath him, every ounce of his concentration devoted to keeping his pace slow. Bulma's nails dug into his shoulders, her grip certainly drawing blood. Vegeta's body was screaming at him, urging him to, at the very least, go faster. Only when Bulma's pleas grew louder than his own, did he plunge deep inside her, his breath hitching as her legs wrapped around him. When she yelled for him to go harder, he complied. Bulma's short, breathy moans grew longer, more continuous, and he felt her tighten and contract around him. Vegeta closed his eyes, biting his lip. He couldn't last long like this, but he wanted to hear her say his name again. With his eyes closed, Bulma's voice sounded deeper, high-pitched sounds of pleasure giving way to throatier grunts and growls.

Vegeta's eyes flew open as he heard his name, in the only other voice he knew as intimately well as his wife's. Goku lay on his back, face buried in the crook of his elbow, his other hand wrapped around his own erection as Vegeta continued to slam into him-his thrusts became much more violent than he ever would have been with Bulma, but Goku didn't seem to mind. A hint of pain was present each time he cried out, but his pleasure was far more evident as he frequently implored Vegeta for more. Goku was panting, a glistening sheen of sweat coated his entire body. Vegeta was mesmerized by the way his abdominal muscles rippled with each heavy breath. Through the haze in his mind, Vegeta was suddenly cognizant of the urge to touch, taste, smell, experience the entire act as he would have done with Bulma. He shook his head, a very large part of him entirely unable to admit that this was about anything more than sex. It was simple, basic fucking. He reminded himself that what turned him on at that moment about the other Saiyan had to do with power, nothing about caring. He pushed himself deeper, relishing in the responses he elicited. Goku underneath him, entirely at his mercy and so utterly exposed, was what excited him. There was no room anything else.

"Kakarot," the husky rasp of his own voice echoed in his ears. Goku tensed around him, pushing Vegeta over the brink toward release.

"Harder, Vegeta, yeah, you have no idea how good this feels," Goku's entire body jerked as he came, bucking wildly against Vegeta. He threw his head back, his free hand coming down to fist the sheets. Vegeta couldn't turn away from the wanton yet vulnerable display. He stiffened, a great, euphoric wave gripping his own body at nearly the same moment. He shuddered, involuntarily closing his eyes.

Vegeta opened his eyes again, squinting at the sunlight seeping through the window shades. It was late, much later than he normally slept, although he hadn't been keeping very regular hours lately. Rubbing his face, he rolled over, ignoring the residual tingle of pleasure lingering at the base of his spine. Before making his way to the shower, Vegeta kicked the pillow he had been subconsciously humping onto the floor. He let loose a very small ki blast, reducing it to smoldering feathers-that stain wasn't going to come out, and he didn't want to be reminded of that dream.


	3. Chapter 3

**Note: I have the opposite of writer's block right now, which is where I'm getting attacked by about 6 different plot bunnies all at once and they're making it very hard for me to focus on finishing this. I also keep getting distracted by some very important video games...TYVM to those of you who tossed reviews my way, I may have squee'd once or twice when I saw them.**

**No real lemons here, just a lot of thinking about them. Just a lot of thinking, really. It's Vegeta's turn this chapter, Goku will be next.**

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Vegeta closed his eyes, letting the warm water of the shower run over his face. Too many thoughts raced through his mind, all of which left him with more questions than answers, the preface to which was the fact that he was showering. It seemed incredibly silly to be showering prior to training, since he would definetly require one after he finished in the gravity chamber. And he was going to go train. That's what he did. He trained, ate, trained, and occasionally nodded off in front of the tv before going to bed. Vegeta could count on one hand the number of days, going back as far as he could remember, when he hadn't trained, excluding periods of time where he was engaged in real battles, and if he counted the week he spent morosely moping around following Cell's defeat as one single occurrence. Not one normally for the sentimental or metaphysical, he still felt the need to wash himself off. Not cleanse himself of impure, dirty, disgusting thoughts of Kakarot, but the purely physical reaction his body had felt because of them. He ignored the fact that he had never showered after sex, an actual act that left him far sweatier and far stickier than any wet dream ever would. And that entire issue was really only a scratch on the surface of the other issues that were really bothering him, anyway.

Wet dream. That was one of those silly human terms that he'd initially scoffed at the first time he'd heard it, and one he hadn't thought about since Trunks hit puberty. Bulma had asked him to talk to the boy about sex, explain to him about the various changes going on in his body. He told her to do it. She said it would be less awkward if Trunks heard it from another male, and that she would much rather that male be his father than from her father, another boy at school, or even Goten. When he still refused, calling the gender argument transparent, she pulled the Saiyan (well, half-Saiyan) card. He snorted, telling her she was far too well-acquainted with the male Saiyan body-his, namely-and was old friends with the only other living full-blooded Saiyan back when he was a teenager. In the end, he had acquiesced, suffering through a fortunately brief conversation with their son, in which Trunks told him he had learned more than whatever Vegeta could possibly tell him several years prior in sex ed classes at school and on tv. Vegeta was glad enough to have avoided the entire thing that he hadn't recognized the insult to his own sex life until after he'd left the room. There was also that other idiotic euphemism: morning wood. Vegeta grumbled out loud to himself, eternally irritated by the ridiculous names earthlings had for anything and everything to do with sex. 'No wonder you're all embarrassed, you call these things by such absurd names!' he had shouted while Bulma childishly giggled, pointing out that if he wasn't equally embarrassed, he wouldn't have quickly snatched the blanket away from her to cover himself up.

The latter occurrence was no surprise, however the former was beginning to disturb him. For the majority of his life, since the approximate age of 11 or 12, he had grown quite accustomed to waking up, usually with an erection that faded after he used the bathroom. What was truly puzzling to Vegeta was the way in the past few month his body had begun behaving more like a hormonal teenager as he slept. Even as a Saiyan, at his age it made no sense to him. During his years under Frieza, he only rarely made use of the occasional whore, mainly viewing such urges as a weakness. He had bore witness to the way in which Nappa frequently screwed any species he could get his over-sized hands on, and after Vegeta eliminated his old cohort in destruction, he had chalked up that overactive libido to one of the traits that made Nappa weak enough that he had to be eliminated in the first place. It hadn't been until those seven years between the threats of Cell and Buu that he and Bulma had begun regularly sleeping together. Prior to that, there were only three occasions on which Trunks could have been conceived. The conclusion to be drawn: Vegeta was not terribly unused to lengthy periods of time without sex. Never in any of his past "dry spells" had his body been so insistent, blatantly defying all his self-discipline, in telling him he needed it. Twelve years was a long time, but it baffled him to think that all of a sudden he should find himself acting like a horny teenager. The past month had found him masturbating far more frequently, waking on nearly a daily basis only a few strokes from release. Vegeta hardly remembered any of those dreams; none had been half as vivid as the one that had played out this morning. And if any of them had featured his old rival so prominently, he had successfully blocked those from memory.

As much as he wanted to blame the other Saiyan, sparring with Goku hadn't ignited any dormant urges. No hungry sex fiend lurked within the repressed corners of his psyche. While during their recent training it was true that something inside him had snapped, had pushed his already malfunctioning sex drive in a direction he never intended, he had already been on edge for several days prior. Had it been something he'd wanted all along? Vegeta balked at the notion that there had been anything sexual in their tense relationship in the past. But was that possible? If verbal sparring with Bulma had proven to be so arousing, why wouldn't the physicality of fighting be the same, especially once the life or death aspect of it had been entirely removed. Once you removed the life or death aspect, and made it about training, did it become almost another form of foreplay? Vegeta shook his head, finding that to be a bit of a stretch. Yet he still couldn't refute the possibility that, if in the same situation again, it wouldn't end in the exact same way. In the gravity room, he had wanted it. His subconscious hadn't exactly pulled away when Bulma's body had morphed into that of his old rival, either. Instead, it had seized the opportunity to dominate, to put Goku entirely at his mercy in a way he had never been able to in an actual fight. Vegeta almost laughed to himself, considering that the least of his concerns was actually the crux of the conflict that any television character ever faced when coming to terms with homosexuality. Admitting to himself that Goku's perfect warrior physique was attractive wasn't nearly as difficult as the movies portrayed.

His thoughts turning back to Bulma. He thought about her often, much more often than he ever betrayed to his children. But that had always been his way. Lately, more of those thoughts had involved her naked, the way their shouting matches had so often melted into passionate, mind-blowing sex. Their arguments were the closest he'd ever come to sharing his feelings, anger being the easiest and only emotion he was ever comfortable verbally expressing. She knew exactly how to press his buttons. Yet there were other things he missed, other things he still, after all this time, found it difficult to admit to himself. Her scent, her stubborn personality, even the insane, borderline bipolar way she could waffle between concern in one breath and outright anger in the next. Vegeta felt none of the guilt so often expressed in those movies he had discovered were so unlike real life, for never having told Bulma any of this. Even if she hadn't been a brilliant scientist, she would have been able to deduce that after so many years of being together, he cared.

Vegeta growled to himself, irritated that he had devoted so much time to trying to sort out feelings. The water in the shower had gone lukewarm, and the skin on his hands had already started pruning. 'That woman is even making me soft from the grave,' he grumbled, hardly meaning it. Since Buu's defeat, he hadn't meant it. The mistake he had made back then, allowing Babidi to possess him in a last-ditch effort to revert to a mindset that he truly understood, taught him that Bulma had hardly been solely responsible for his change. Vegeta was just as prone to introspection as any prideful Saiyan, forced to re-examine his world view again and again after major life-changing events. From the time he first landed on Earth, the number of significant events in his life that had shown him to be weaker than Kakarot, weaker than Kakarot's brat, unable to defeat Freiza, Cell, or Majin Buu on his own, his difficulty ascending to Super Saiyan while his own son managed the transformation as a child so effortlessly. The fact that he even had a son was important, but minor when added together with the thorough beating his pride had taken. Still, up until the end, he had been sure to remind Bulma that any kindness and humanity had taken on was 1) bad and 2) entirely her fault. Again, he enjoyed the response it never failed to draw from her. Shutting off the faucet and drying himself off, Vegeta grunted, recognizing he still hadn't come to terms with any of it. He dressed, and retreated to the sanctuary of the gravity room to train. At least there he could focus on something more than how much he missed his wife, and how badly he wanted to fuck Kakarot.


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: I'm not so sure about this. There are things about Vegeta that I think I simply understand a lot better than I do about Goku. Personally, I do not "get" people who somehow manage to see the good in everyone. Vegeta has always been a favorite character of mine because I can project my own sense of 'anger is the easiest emotion to show' onto him and I totally buy that. He certainly has no trouble saying he's pissed off when he's pissed off, but whenever Goku mentions anything about his love for Bulma and Trunks, he does the growly thing complete with anime sweatdrops. Despite the fact that I get all kinds of happy, and for a few moments a huge shit-eating grin plasters itself across my face when I see in the review section that there are those of you who took the time to tell me that you're digging this fic, actually typing "OMFG thank you so much," takes some effort. So anyway, I hope that you guys enjoy this, and I hope that I didn't totally screw up Goku in this one. **

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Even with an ability like instant transmission at his disposal, Goku often preferred to fly when he wasn't in a hurry. It didn't matter to him how many times Chichi reminded him in no uncertain terms that it gave him no excuse to ever be late for anything ever again. If he was a few minutes...hours...days...late for something, the wrath of her firey temper was a small price to pay for the feeling of the wind against his body, and the view that it gave him. In matters of urgency, since he did have instant transmission, Goku never flew anywhere too quickly anymore. He soared, appreciating the perspective that only birds, pterodactyls, his sons, and closest friends ever got to truly see. Flying in an aircraft wasn't the same. The transparisteel window of the cockpit and metal construction of the fuselage protected you from the elements, which were half the experience. You couldn't swoop down at a moment's notice to nap by a stream or pick fruit from a tree.

Flying was almost like a form of meditation for him, a place where Goku was able to completely clear his mind as he surveyed the land beneath him. On this particular afternoon, the Saiyan found himself replaying his last sparring match with Vegeta instead. He hadn't spent much time thinking about the sparring match. In all honesty, Goku wouldn't have ruminated on it at all had it not been with Vegeta. It was hardly a secret that Tien and Chiaotzu's training partnership consisted of more than just training, and as he had told Vegeta, he and Krillin shared some history. He and Krillin had ended many training sessions as teenagers with mutual masturbation. Training in Other World hadn't been much different, other than the fact that he had sometimes gone much further with more than one other training partner than just jerking each other off. On the rare occasion he met anyone who was acquainted with Earth, they would commented on how he possessed none of the expected sexual hang-ups that humans (or in his case, a Saiyan raised to adulthood without actually knowing his true heritage) displayed. Goku had an inkling that a lot of the interactions between Bulma and Oolong, way back when they'd first met, had something to do with this. Otherwise, he hadn't really understood the specifics. Master Roshi had never made his dirty old man ways a secret, and Bulma really wasn't that much of a prude. Goku tended to view sex in the same light as he viewed 95% of everything else in life-with the same fun-loving and open response that greeted every situation that didn't absolutely warrant him to act seriously.

'Vegeta, though,' he thought to himself as Mt. Paozu became visible through the clouds. 'Sure, he's mellowed a little over the years. But mellow for Vegeta is still pretty tense. You can blast a boulder into pebbles, and they're still rocks. Kind of like Chichi, even at her age she's still feisty as ever.' Goku pondered Vegeta and Bulma's relationship. In all the years they were together, he wondered, how often was Vegeta around? 'Heh, probably more than I was,' he mused. Vegeta had stayed after Cell had been defeated. Goku was dead, gone for the first seven years of his younger son's life. While imagining Vegeta taking Trunks to the park, or doing anything with his son other than training him, made Goku chuckle to himself, he supposed the scenario wasn't entirely impossible. And after Buu was gone, Bra had been conceived. He probably did partake in the day to day activities, such as meals and maybe even bedtime stories. From the family photos adorning the mantlepiece, it was obvious that Vegeta had an overprotective dad mode where his daughter was concerned. Goku had smiled the first time he'd seen those pictures. Being the guy capable of seeing the good even in a guy who swore to bring about his destruction, Goku had been glad to see that he'd been right all along. Vegeta just needed friends to help him get there. He had made it there, despite his last-ditch attempts via that evil wizard's possession to revert to a less complicated place. In the end, Goku had been right.

Though Goku couldn't recall ever seeing a single gesture that could be interpreted as affection-unless you counted their arguments, in the immature way you might see an eight year old put gum in the hair of a female classmate because he liked her-behind closed doors things couldn't have been all that bad. Two kids, years of marriage: if Vegeta had only been hanging around for the high-tech training facilities, the Bulma Goku knew would have tossed him out eons ago had there not been some sort of spark between them in the bedroom. The way Vegeta had reacted in the gravity room was loneliness manifesting. After years of sleeping alone, his body was trying to seek out the physical affection it so sorely missed.

Goku came to his conclusion just as he arrived on his own family's doorstep. 'Vegeta just needs someone right now. He'll never admit to it, maybe not even to himself. But he's been hurting for so long. And as his friend, I'll do whatever I can to help him get through this.'

"Hey, dad!" Gohan shouted as Goku landed beside him. He and Videl were outside in the vegetable garden when he arrived.

"Hey son, hi Videl," Goku greeted them. As he spoke, his stomach let out a loud rumble. "Is dinner ready? I'm starving!" All three of them laughed.

"Well, some things never change," Videl said, standing and brushing dirt off her jeans. "Chichi just wanted some more carrots for the salad, but I think everything else is just about done."

The three of them went inside. Videl helped Chichi with the remaining meal preparations, while Gohan and Goku joined Pan at the table.

"Where's Goten?" Goku asked. Chichi just snorted, grumbling something about how her youngest son would still rather be out doing God knows what than visiting with the family he hardly ever sees all together.

"Sometimes I just wish he was more like his brother and less like his father," Chichi continued. "Gohan had already settled down with a nice girl long before he was his age, and Pan's a grown woman yet she didn't have any problem gracing us with her presence."

"Come on Chichi, you're embarrassing everyone," Goku said. He and his wife were the only two not blushing, awkwardly looking down at their plates, or fiddling with eating utensils.

"I just don't see what's so wrong about wanting to have a nice dinner with your family. I bet Trunks and Bra still show up for dinner with their father."

Goku nearly choked on his food at the notion that Vegeta would ever call his children and ask them to come eat dinner with him. "I'm going to go train with him tomorrow, actually. We sparred the other day, first time in ages. He's stronger than he's ever been."

"I can believe that. How's he doing?" Gohan asked, piling a fourth helping of chicken onto his plate.

Goku shrugged, not really feeling this the time or the place to tell his family why he was concerned, "oh, you know Vegeta. He'd never let on, but I think he really misses Bulma."

Gohan dropped a chopstick. "Um, yeah, well, I guess. Basic psychology, if you keep grief bottled up for too long, eventually you'll blow. But if he hasn't blown up anything by now..." Gohan's voice trailed off. Videl and Chichi were silent.

Goku kept talking between bites, "well, he did calm down a bit after Bra was born, right? And now she's grown up. I mean, he's still moody as ever. You know, just like Vegeta. Pass me the spaghetti, Pan?"

"I'm still never going to get used to your appetite, grandpa," Pan said, lightening the mood. The conversation shifted away from Vegeta after that.


End file.
